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Ear to the Ground

Danish Paper Apologizes for Cartoon

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Posted on Feb 26, 2010
Wikimedia Commons

The Copenhagen headquarters of Politiken, the newspaper that apologized for publishing an offensive cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. 

A Danish newspaper that published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban has apologized for offending Muslims. The penitence was part of a settlement between the paper and eight Muslim groups. The apology has been denounced by other members of the Danish media, which previously stood united in rejecting calls to back down in the face of Islamic outrage over the cartoon. —JCL

The Telegraph:

A Danish newspaper on Friday became the first in the country to apologise for offending Muslims by printing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb-shaped turban, rekindling a heated debate about free speech.

Politiken said its apology was part of a settlement with a Saudi lawyer representing eight Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia.

The daily drew strong criticism from Danish media, which previously had stood united in rejecting calls to apologise for 12 cartoons that sparked fierce protests in the Muslim world four years ago.

Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the prime minister, expressed surprise at Politiken’s move, saying he was worried that Danish media no longer were “standing shoulder to shoulder” on the issue.

Politiken said it did not mean to offend Muslims in Denmark or elsewhere when it reprinted one of the most controversial cartoons, showing the Prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the Prophet, even favourable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

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By amuslim, March 3, 2010 at 2:15 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

i am pleased for the apology , i love danish for doing so, may allah bless you all and show you the right-path ( teaching of prophet )..

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By ofersince72, March 1, 2010 at 5:54 pm Link to this comment

“I do not ignore the religious crazies in christianity, but they tend to be controlled by
social pressure and law”  HUH???

I will repeat my one liner..

if it weren’t fer oil, no concern about arab,
jew or a muslim

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By nemesis2010, March 1, 2010 at 12:07 pm Link to this comment

@ Arabian Sinbad:

Those political cartoons were appropriate freedom of speech! Other than Muslims, are there members any other groups running around with bombs strapped to them in order to blow themselves and others to smithereens? One fifth of the world believing in Arab goat-herder mythology doesn’t make that mythology any truer than the sheep-herder mythology of their Jewish cousins! It just means that one fifth of the world is actually as dumb as or perhaps even dumber than a Republican!

And just what the hell would a Muslim know about free speech and democratic ideology? Do you really believe all of us stupid enough to think that the purveyors of Sharia law could ever possess the mental faculties required to understand and embrace such things as personal freedom and liberty? If you do, you’d better think again.

Why don’t all of you religious boobs go kill yourselves and join your non-existent gods in your non-existent paradises and screw yourselves to contentment with your non-existent virgins or fall on your knees worshipping your non-existent Allah, Jeebus or Jehovah or whomever it is that you want to be with or doing in your non-existent paradises and leave the enlightened part of humanity to itself?

The religious are the most miserable sons-a-biotches on the planet. They fear life and are always looking for their version of paradise. They want to be anywhere but here, unless of course, it’s their psychopathic version of here. And the theists’ version of here makes Dante’s version of hell seem like a vacation in our most exotic vacation spot on earth today. But that’s just it, the religious are so miserable that they can’t be happy unless they make everyone else as miserable as they are or even more miserable. The crux of the matter is that even then you can’t be happy because you’re psychopaths! Nothing can make you happy because you hate life and you especially hate the joy of sex and human genitalia!

I hate what the West has done and is doing in the Middle East but every time one benighted such as you or Gadaffy opens your mouth and presents us with a peek inside your mind; I can’t help but wonder if future generations might actually look back on the actions of AmeriCorp’s village idiot as actions of an unsung hero.

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By nemesis2010, February 27, 2010 at 4:13 pm Link to this comment

Poltroons!

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no mans land's avatar

By no mans land, February 27, 2010 at 10:52 am Link to this comment

Religion is the problem. It is nothing more than the codified celebration of self and culture over others through ritual and tradition. The only fault I find with the Danish paper is not having decorated every religion in the same shroud of truth.

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By Jim yell, February 27, 2010 at 8:10 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

As we witness Islam getting special treatment in civil law by some European countries and over and over again the inability of Islam to tolerate even constructive critics, I think the question should Islam be allowed to participate at all in liberal democracy, is a question that should be asked and answered. The honor killings that are directed not just at Islamic family members but even at none Islamic citizens should not be tolerated or dismissed.

I do not ignore the regilious crazies in Christianity, but they tend to be controled by social pressures and law. If Islam creates citizens who are unable to tolerate their none Islamic neighbors than why should they be allowed into areas where they have no history?

I want people to be able to practice lawful religions. That is relgions that realize that even believers have the right to change their minds and the most they can, or should do with an apostate is withdraw their membership from the group.

Anything else is a crime and any religious group, including Christians who give themselves powers to kill other people or imprison them solely from their personal religious scruples, those people should be remvoed from our society. Having Freedom of worship works both ways. You can not have it if you are unwilling to allow it to individuals and groups.

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Arabian Sinbad's avatar

By Arabian Sinbad, February 26, 2010 at 7:16 pm Link to this comment

I am glad that those sons of bitches have realized finally that there is great difference between serious and meaningful freedom of speech and pure garbage and tasteless fanciful sensationalism originating in sick mentality and hateful stereotyping and bigotry against the faith of one fifth of humanity.

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By velvel in decatur, February 26, 2010 at 2:03 pm Link to this comment

Cowards.
Cowards.
Cowards.
I will believe these cowards two days after Al Ahram and rest of the Arab press apologize for running antisemitic cartoons.  And that will be a day after the messiah comes.
Take away their presses and put them in dresses.

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